Action Alert

UPDATE: The Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to send a letter Supervisor Michael Kobseff drafted, attacking former President Obama’s expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument (full details here). We want to acknowledge and thank Supervisor Ed Valenzuela who provided the dissenting vote.

Kobseff’s letter is full of “alternative facts”, and may harm the local outdoor recreation industry.

Tourism and outdoor recreation drive jobs and prosperity here in Siskiyou County. They rely on strong protections for land held in the public trust. Supervisors should be pursuing the many untapped possibilities to build that industry. Instead, with this letter they fight to move backwards.

The letter implied the expansion was improper and illegal, but that is simply not the case, as this Los Angeles Times article makes clear. There is no legal basis to challenge this action.

To quote from the article:

“The lengthy legal history of monument designations also informs the debate over presidential overreach. No monument proclamation has ever been revoked; federal courts have dismissed all legal challenges. And the U.S. attorney general long ago concluded that presidents lack the authority to undo designations made by other presidents.

Since the Antiquities Act applies only to lands that already are federal, no private property rights are affected. Monument opponents claim that designation will curtail grazing, mining and vehicular recreation, yet existing “multiple uses” that do not threaten the area’s historic and scientific value are preserved.”

Despite the draft letter’s ineffectiveness, we need to continue telling all members of the county Board of Supervisors that citizens value public lands, and that we expect them to build our outdoor recreation economy, not try to destroy it.